Ten people left Glass Eye to join the new company, and we got right to work on the next version of Microsoft Casino, now called Bicycle Casino, licensed from the well known card company. Our group picked up another title from the same line, and out studio grew to 22 employees.

Our contacts at Microsoft were really fantastic - and they taught me more about developing software in two years than I learned in seven at Origin. Years later I'm still using these lessons: how to schedule and plan, how to set specific development practices in each phase of development, and how to run a small development studio.

Unfortunately for us, the bottom fell out of the PC market at the completion of our third project with Microsoft, and we didn't have the necessary depth to translate to a console project. We eventually shut Compulsive down and rolled what was left back into Glass Eye Entertainment - which had to cut back a few months later.

I knew at that point I had to retrench my career, and get some work on a console project. Lucky for me Ion Storm was hiring.